Wednesday night, he lashed out at a courtside photographer in Minneapolis, kicking the man and risking disciplinary action from the league. Neither the Bulls nor the NBA had any official comment Thursday.

Disturbing as the incident is to some analysts, they say that Rodman's value to the team still outweighs his personal unpredictability. They say the idea that this imbroglio could derail the fabulously popular Bulls is far-fetched.

"Dennis has been a distraction for the team, but all the while he's helping to win games. It's a paradox," said Matt Guokas, a former NBA player and coach in Philadelphia and Orlando who now does game commentary for NBC.

"How long do you put up with it? Well, he's 35 and on a one-year contract. He's on a team that, if you believe their public statements, is probably together for one last season. I'm sure all the parties involved just want to get through this year unscathed.

"But it's taxing, always holding your breath through another day or another week, waiting for the next thing to happen. If you weren't winning, it would get old pretty fast."

Boston-area psychologist Art Taylor agreed, saying that Rodman might not be tolerated on a less successful or less experienced team.

"There are no followers on this team, which may be why it's the right team for him," said Taylor, associate director of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

"It's a very mature team. No one is copying him."

But Taylor added that the incident shows a loss of impulse control that should make the Bulls sit up and take notice.

"It made me sick to my stomach, and I'm a fan of his," Taylor said. "There's a point where you have to say, `I'm really having a problem with this, and I need help.' That's what I'd like to see him do."

Rodman, the National Basketball Association's leading rebounder, can't seem to go very long without getting yanked off the stage where he usually performs so well. Earlier this season, the Bulls suspended him for delivering a profane locker-room harangue on live television, and last season, he sat out several games for head-butting a referee.

The 6-foot-8-inch forward erupted after his momentum carried him into a row of photographers seated courtside during Wednesday night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He said after the game that he tripped, twisting his ankle, aimed for a camera in anger and struck the photographer instead. Rodman remained in the game.

Although it appeared that the photographer was kicked in the leg, he was carried off the court on a stretcher after complaining of groin, back and neck pain. One of his relatives later demanded money for the story, and Rodman himself said he expects to be sued.

Several observers, including Chuck Daly, who coached Rodman in his years with the Detroit Pistons, said the explosion was somewhat out of character.

"It concerns me more than most other things that have happened with Dennis," Daly said. "I just think he was so mad at being hurt. . . . I've always felt that having photographers so close is an accident waiting to happen."

Guokas also said he was surprised by the incident because he could not recall Rodman throwing a punch or being the aggressor in an on-court fistfight.

"It's totally unacceptable," he said. "You can't condone it, even if there were extenuating circumstances."

Whether or not he is suspended or sued, sports marketing experts say Rodman's pockmarked resume is unlikely to affect his commercial potential.

He recently switched shoe companies--going from cutting-edge Nike to more strait-laced Converse--and posed for one of the dairy industry's "milk mustache" ads, bare-chested and sporting a navel ring, a nose ring and multiple earrings.

"No one's looking at Dennis Rodman to lend credibility to a product or a service," said Nye Lavalle, who heads the Dallas-based Sports Marketing Group. "They're using his flamboyant personality and his creativity.

"In the scheme of things, what has Dennis done? There are guys out there playing who have huge drug and alcohol problems, who have committed rapes and assaults."

There was some negative fan reaction in Chicago Thursday. In a WBBM-AM poll of several hundred listeners, 57 percent said they were "fed up" with Rodman's behavior.

Nonetheless, Douglas Noverr, a Michigan State University professor who specializes in sports and American culture, said that Rodman's antics have not yet elevated him to the status of franchise embarrassment.

Noverr pointed to Billy Martin, the late New York Yankees manager who could not stay out of bar and clubhouse blowups, leading him to be fired more than once.

"Rodman's a lot more complicated than that," Noverr said. "He's got these multiple identities that he portrays and works hard at. There was the period earlier this season where he was openly wondering whether he had the will to play.

"I think he's always been out of place in Chicago. If he hadn't pulled down the numbers, they wouldn't have kept him. And I think Phil Jackson's inclusive philosophy is one of the main reasons (Rodman) stays.

"He's a fifth wheel--he doesn't work with the other four, but you don't want to take it off."